Welcome to our travel blog. We are Tabitha and Nic. In 2011 we 'retired' in our early 40s and set off to travel the world. We spent our first year in South America and have been lucky enough to make two trips to Antarctica.

Our blog is a record of our travels, thoughts and experiences. It is not a guide book, but we do include some tips and information, so we hope that you may find it useful if you are planning to visit somewhere we have been. Or you may just find it interesting as a bit of armchair travel.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Iguassu -a tale of two cities: part 2

From Puerto Iguazu, we made the very easy border crossing over to Foz do Iguacu in Brazil.

From this side, you don't get up close with the Devil's Throat, but you do get a good overview of the main drops. It isn't as breathtaking, but we think it is worth the trip if you can fit it in.

We are frequently amused by some of the dubious english translations that we see while travelling. While we don't wish to laugh at the people who did them, because their eglish is probably still better than my spanish, they can be funny. This idea of not going faster than the fence was one example here.

Our wildlife experiences here thankfully didn't include any large eight legged things, but we did see more coatis and, a first for me, an armadillo.

We have seen frequent images of and wooden carved armadillos since we've been here, so it was good to see a real one actually does exist too.

We did consider doing a helicopter trip over the falls, but eventually decided against it. In part, budget was a factor, but also we had seen that the trips apparently bother the resident toucans and other tropical birds, so are not ecologically sound.

Back in Foz, we had our first two experiences of eating budget style in Brazil. Our first lunch was in a tiny place near to our hostel and was a basic buffet. I asked if they had a menu too and was told no, but they could do some beef and eggs. I thought they meant they were bringing out some extra stuff for the buffet, so while Nic got his first plateful, I waited.

I was soon brought out a whole plateful of minute steaks, with a couple of fried eggs on top, just for me. When I had finished, they asked me if I wanted more, but I really couldn't have eaten anything else. I was charged no different to Nic, and that was very little.

The next day we were looking for somewhere else to eat and again found most places closed at lunchtime. After a while, we found our first per kilo restaurant, where you help yourself to a buffet and then they charge you by the kilo. Excellent value once again.

But still, neither was as good value as our hostel. It was already surprisingly well priced for such a tourist area, but we were happy to discover that as well a hearty breakfast where you could make yourself unlimited eggs and toasties, we also got a free dinner each night.

Added to this a free Caipirinha or two, and we were well away. For anyone who hasn't tried a Caipirinha, this is the key drink in Brazil, made from Cachaca (a spirit distilled from sugar cane), lime and sugar.

Our room was not exactly normal hostel standards either. As well as the TV, ensuite bathroom, with towels and soap, there were picture on the walls, a rug on the floor and a couple of vases of artificial flowers.

When we got back to our room the first night, we also found a bottle of red wine, corkscrew and two glasses. We assumed we would have had to pay for that, so we left it, but still, not your normal hostel behaviour.

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As well as the pictures on the blog itself, we are gradually creating some albums of extra photos. You can watch the slideshow below, or if you click on a slideshow it should take you to our Picasa photo albums. We have added to captions to some pictures so that you can see what they are.